National Green Juice Day Date in the current year: January 26, 2024

Green juice is a healthy drink that originated in Japan in the 1940s. It all started when army doctor Niro Endo extracted juices from the discarded leaves of various vegetables in an attempt to add some nutrients to his family’s poor wartime diet. Eventually he concluded that kale was the best ingredient for aojiru (which literally means “green juice” or “green drink” in Japanese.

Aojiru became popular in the 1980s when Q'SAI started marketing powdered kale aojiru as a dietary supplement. Twenty years later, cosmetic giant FANCL started selling green juice, and its popularity skyrocketed despite the bitter taste of the drink. Today, green juice is produced by many Japanese companies, typically from kale or young barley grass.

The drink has made its way from Japan to the United States, but the American version of the drink is different from its Japanese prototype. American green juice can be made from any green vegetables and fruits such as celery, kale, green apples, cucumbers, parsley, wheatgrass, fennel, spinach, Swiss chard, mint, lettuce, watercress, and even dandelion greens. Lemon or lime juice may be added to the mix to prevent oxidation and preserve the bright green color of the drink.

What exactly are the health benefits of green juice? Like all fresh juices, it is a great source of vitamins, dietary minerals, and dietary fiber. What makes green juice better than most fruit juices is its lower sugar content; however, some manufacturers add fruit juices or various sweeteners to their green juice to improve its taste, so you should always read the labels very carefully.

We should also warn you that overconsumption of certain dietary minerals is bad for people with certain health conditions, so you may want to consult a physician before introducing green juices into your diet to figure out which vegetables you should and shouldn’t use.

National Green Juice Day has been celebrated every January 26 since 2016. The holiday was created by Evolution Fresh, an American manufacturer of cold-pressed juices and smoothies. Evolution Fresh conducted a survey that showed that half of all Americans who make New Year’s resolutions break them before January. The main intention behind National Green Juice Day is to encourage people to stick to their wellness resolutions by drinking a glass of green juice on January 26.

There are many ways to observe National Green Juice Day. You can learn more about the health benefits of green juice, grab a bottle or two of green juice from your local grocery store, go out to a juice bar, make your own green juice or smoothie at home (don’t be afraid to experiment with various ingredients to figure out the perfect combination), promise yourself to have a glass of green juice every day, and spread the word on social media with the hashtags #NationalGreenJuiceDay and #GreenJuiceDay.